On Tuesday’s “Morning Joe,” journalist Jeff Greenfield referenced the nickname’s plug in Brooks’ column and seemed to take credit for the idea, saying, “I, on this very program, referenced Mitt Romney as Thurston Howell III, which is now the David Brooks column…” (Greenfield was later introduced by “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski as “the man who used the term Thurston Howell first…”)

On Tuesday’s “Fox & Friends,” Laura Ingraham said Brooks “is stealing my old line” about Romney as Howell. (Ingraham was referencing an Aug. 31 appearance on Fox News in which she said, “More swing voters in America should now see Mitt Romney in a warmer and more reassuring light, not as the Thurston Howell III of modern day politics.”)

Turns out: There’s a long history of referring to Romney as a millionaire island castaway.

Back in 2007, the Kansas City Star reported the following:

“In an attempt to get a handle on how Americans see the top six White House hopefuls, Ann Mack, the director of trend-spotting for J. Walter Thompson, conducted an almost surreal survey. She asked 681 people: ‘Which characters would the candidates be if they were on ‘Gilligan’s Island’?’”

“Sen. Barack Obama was seen as the Professor and Sen. Hillary Clinton as Mrs. Howell. Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain came back as the Skipper. Mitt Romney was Thurston Howell III.”

In October 2011, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow — referring to this picture of Romney during his years at Bain Capital — said “This is not something we PhotoShopped to make him look like Thurston Howell.” (Since then, Maddow has continued to refer to Romney as Howell.)

In November 2011, the blog Down With Tyranny penned a post titled, “Mitt Romney = Thurston Howell III— How Will That Go Over In Euro-Zone?”